


Radiant Flames

by Mertiya



Series: Center-verse [3]
Category: Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion... - Sandia Labs, Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Multi, Post-Apocalypse, Prompt Fill, Wild West, ribbon lightning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-24 05:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18564853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: Jace has narrowly escaped the destruction of the town where he was living.  Now he's very cold and very alone.





	Radiant Flames

**Author's Note:**

> so this is a vague snippet prompt fill but I'm still trying to figure out how to do a proper MtG Centerverse fic, so it's also kind of a way for me to spitball for that.

Jace is shivering with cold; the desert night seeps the warmth from his bones despite the flickering of the firelight. There are no other blankets, though, and the injured will need theirs.

            “Hey. Scholar. Blue boy.” Blinking, Jace looks up and sees two vaguely familiar forms huddled together, in the outer golden ring of the firelight. One of them wears a many-pointed sheriff’s star over a set of black-and-white leathers that mark him as a lawman of Lasalama; the other is holding up a hand with the Banded Eye tattooed on the palm. Another scholar. Jace blinks at them. The other scholar beckons him over.

            “Come on,” the man says roughly. “You’re going to freeze like that.”

            Jace gives him a hesitant smile and tentatively starts to move towards them. “Do you…have an extra blanket?”

            The scholar shakes his head. “But we’ve got body heat,” he says with a shrug. “And you’re shivering.”

            “You don’t mind?” Jace hazards, pulling his blue robe tighter about him. He hasn’t, so far, had a particularly warm reception in any of the towns he’s traveled to. The members of the Gatewatch patrol who helped them escape Lasalama after the attack of Bolas’s bandits—they were kind, but harried. Not much time to talk when the place was literally on fire.

            “If I minded, I wouldn’t have offered,” snaps the other scholar. His companion gives Jace an amused glance.

            “Don’t mind Ral,” he says. “His bark is worse than his bite. Please. You could freeze to death.”

            “Th-Thanks,” Jace manages, closing the distance between himself and the other two. Two pairs of arms reach out and help him to lie down between them. There’s a few minutes of awkward flailing as they all try to sort out tangled limbs, and that plus the warmth of two other bodies has Jace heating up nicely. Somehow, there are tears pricking at his eyes, and it’s all he can do not to cry.

            He tries to lie still and not disturb the other two, but first one sob and then another catches in his throat. “Mother of Rains,” groans the man named Ral.

            “Sorry,” Jace mumbles.

            “No, it’s—fuck.” Ral tries to go up on one elbow and nearly whacks Jace in the face. “It’s okay. I’m just bad at…things.” He waves a hand vaguely.

            The lawman gives a sleepy laugh. “He doesn’t know how to emote.” He rubs a hand across his weary face. “Don’t know if I do either, but you can cry if you need to. It’s been a rough day for everyone. I’m Tomik, by the way.”

            “Jace,” Jace manages, still trying to rub away the stubborn tears. “Thanks.”

            “I’m an asshole but I’m not going to let someone freeze to death right in front of me,” Ral mumbles, and Tomik chuckles. He reaches out to ruffle Ral’s hair in a gentle, intimate kind of way that makes Jace flush and feel like an outsider. But—they’ve both of them opened their arms to him, quite literally, so maybe he should just give up on worrying about things for tonight and be grateful for the warmth.

            With a sigh and a shiver, Jace feels his body relax. Before he slips entirely into sleep, he feels the other two curling around him almost protectively.


End file.
